Rivers of Living Water

We are in a sermon series on the Holy Spirit.

This is uh our last week on that subject.

We've been looking at the person and the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, what only He can do to bring us to Christ, what only He can do to grow us in Christ.

And it's it's a lot, it's everything.

So this morning we're going to look at the brief text of John chapter 7, verses 37 to 39.

John 7:37–39

This took place in the Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem during the days of Jesus.

And it was a seven-day feast, and every day of the feast the priests would fill up these golden pitchers of water from the pool of Siloam, and they would pour that water out, reminding them of what their ancestors found to be true, that God sustained the Israelites through 40 years of being in the wilderness.

And he gave them physical water so that they could live.

And he offered spiritual water so that they could thrive and not just live.

And so we see Jesus on the last day of the feast standing up.

On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, If anyone thirst, let him come to me and drink.

Whoever believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.

Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive.

For as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

This is the reading of God's holy word.

And so we pray that the Spirit of God would do his work.

Let's pray.

Father, we thank you.

We thank you for all the ceremonies in the Old Testament that pointed, that pointed to Jesus.

Just as the Feast of Tabernacles pointed to Jesus, just as the water, the pouring out of the water from the pitcher at the altar would have reminded the Jewish people, you've recorded this passage for us today, that we might also understand, Jesus, that only you can pour living water into us, your spirit.

So, Holy Spirit, we pray would you please cause us to come to life in new ways today.

We pray that you would open us up to all that you want to give us today.

We ask this in the name of Christ.

Amen.

So this morning on Pentecost Sunday, Pentecost Sunday, remembering when Jesus poured out his Spirit from heaven on his people on earth.

And things have never been the same in the Church of Christ as the Holy Spirit came down in tongues of fire and rested upon those early Christians there.

The Holy Spirit still works today.

He's still working in congregations all over the world.

And we're going to take a closer look at what that work looks like.

Consider this morning just some Tom's thoughts on the Holy Spirit.

I'll give you a little bit of an outline if you if that'll help.

Jesus' invitation is to thirsty people.

You have to know that you're thirsty for Jesus to be able to help you.

Secondly, the invitation is given specifically to come to Jesus.

And thirdly, the satisfaction that he guarantees when you do come to Jesus.

And so we look at the work of the Spirit.

The invitation is extended to thirsty people.

Jesus, on the last day of the feast, this would be the pinnacle.

The crowd is there.

Jerusalem would be bustling with people.

Jerusalem was a fairly small city.

But on these great high days of Feast of the Year, they were just packed with throngs of people.

And then you notice what the text says?

He stood up.

Rabbis usually taught seated.

It would have been noteworthy that he stood up.

And then, what does it say?

He cried out.

Why would he cry?

I mean, I've got to believe that a lot of folks would have been surprised, and some of them might even say, you know, tone it down, Jesus.

You're kidding, a little emotional.

Jesus wouldn't apologize for that.

You know why he cried out?

Because this is really important.

The urgency of thirsty people identifying their thirst and coming to Jesus through the Holy Spirit.

It's the Holy Spirit who shows you your thirst.

Everybody's thirsty.

There's just a lot of people that don't know they're thirsty.

And you can do that in church, right?

Some of us have done that maybe for a long time in church.

You can go to church every single week.

You can go in and you can sing the hymns, the songs, you can listen to the sermon.

You can give your money, and you can leave as thirsty as you can.

You know that?

Who knows that?

It's not just me, right?

I'm ashamed of how many times I've done that.

I started going to church as a very, very little boy.

There were just a lot of times I was in worship and I wasn't really worshiping well.

As we saw last week, to worship well, the one thing that the Father seeks, the one thing that the Father seeks is true worshipers.

People who know how to worship him in spirit and in truth.

And we looked at that.

That means that you need the Holy Spirit to worship well.

The truth, you need Jesus Christ to worship well.

And Jesus is offering living water.

When we leave worship, as we came, we haven't worshiped well.

There's this old saying, I've heard people say it.

I stopped rebuking those people.

You know, it means well.

You know, you're supposed to leave everything at the door when you come to worship.

That's terrible advice.

That's compartmentalizing.

You know, if you've had a rough week, well, just kind of cut off the backpack of that, you know, cut it loose.

What that's really saying is buck yourself up, convince yourself, erase that tape so that now you can really worship.

That's not the way it works.

The way it works is you come as you are into worship.

And what whatever you've been carrying this week, if you've been carrying a lot of fear, anxiety, well, guess what?

You are going to bring that in.

If you're carrying a lot of anger or bitterness, you're going to bring that with you.

It's not as easy.

Oh, I'll leave that behind.

No, you don't.

Be honest.

You bring what you've been living with.

And that's what you should do in worship.

What we've been talking recently is what the Puritans call spiritual transactions.

Spiritual transactions is when the Holy Spirit is at work in your heart in good worship.

He's putting his finger on your anger.

He's putting his finger on your bitterness.

Or your sense of shame.

Or guilt.

He's putting his finger on whatever's going on in your life that's hard.

And he's saying, bring it to Jesus.

Bring it to Jesus.

He knows what to do with it.

Is that was that how you grew up thinking about worship?

I think the answer is no for most of us.

I think the answer is no for most of us.

We just kind of thought, no, you sing, you pray, you listen, you think about something.

You know, you know, if it's a really good sermon, you go home, you think, yeah, I need to think about that more.

That's not the way it works.

You worship on the spot when the Holy Spirit is at work.

The Holy Spirit puts his finger on that unforgiving spirit.

He says, You know what you need to do with that.

You know what you need to do with that.

You need to forgive that person.

I mean, Jesus believed that so strongly.

What did he say in the Sermon on the Mount?

Leave your worship, leave your gift at the altar, and go make things right with your brother.

That's how seriously Jesus took that.

When you worship on the spot, the Holy Spirit is making the truth come alive.

He's making Jesus look beautiful to you so that you say, you convince yourself, I need to take this to Jesus.

Everybody with me?

That's how it works.

You say, well, boy, there's been a lot of times I haven't worshiped.

Yeah.

And you know what?

He forgives that too.

But it doesn't give us an excuse to continue to live like that.

What he shows you, he expects you to take in.

Tasting the honey.

That's good worship.

I don't know.

I probably have had more bad worship experiences than you have.

I'm older.

I've had more chances to miss it.

But I tell you, I as I learned how to worship, as I learned how to worship, thank God, that changed.

And my worship has become much more joyful in my life.

And the Holy Spirit has done a lot more work in my heart as I've been learning how to worship.

Are you aware of your thirst?

We've been talking about that the last month in this series, Jesus and the woman at the well.

Remember how Jesus made her aware of her thirst?

Go get your husband.

Well, I don't have a husband.

You're right.

You're right.

You've had five.

And the man that you're living with isn't your husband.

And she's just like, what?

How does this guy know me inside out?

Well, because he made you.

Of course he knows you.

Of course he knows your thirst.

She wants to get into an excursive.

She wants to get off track talking about where to worship, and Jesus says, that's not the conversation, where to worship.

The conversation is what is real worship?

It's in spirit and it's in truth.

Come to the living water.

Has Jesus been showing you, have you been having conversations with Jesus the last three or four weeks as we've been in the series?

I'm asking you.

Have you been having conversations with Jesus about where you've been digging for living water in all the wrong places?

If you can tell me, if you can say, I have, the spirit has been working.

Has the spirit been showing you where you're digging for water when Jesus is saying, I'm the fountain of living water?

Come to me.

Has the spirit been showing you?

Has the spirit been saying, go get your husband?

And as we've said it, he could have just as easily said to some of us, go get your kids.

Because some of us live for our kids.

Sometimes we live through our kids.

Or we live for our marriage, or we live through our marriage, or we live for our career.

Or we live for our achievements.

Just whatever makes me feel alive.

Whatever makes me think, okay, now I now I really feel good about myself.

That's a sister.

And the Holy Spirit says, put down your shovel and repent.

I have to repent a lot, don't you?

Put down your shovel.

Jesus could have just as easily said to a lot of ministers, go get your ministry.

Go get your ministry.

You've poured your heart, you've poured your soul, you've poured your time, you've poured your energy.

And go get it.

Well, why would I go get my ministry?

Well, because that's where you've been looking to fill yourself with water, to feel better about yourself.

Yesterday we had the joint officers meeting for our church, and we had all the elders and deacons in the room.

It was a rich hour and a half of Bible study and discussion, and then I left a question for all the guys, a question I've been thinking about.

What is it that the Holy Spirit is asking you to leave behind so that you can move forward in your walk with Christ?

That's a good question.

It's not just for leaders.

What is the Holy Spirit asking you to leave behind so that you can move forward in your walk with Jesus?

It was a rich time.

I asked everybody to just go off for 20 minutes of solitude and just continue to reflect and invite the Spirit in.

What is it?

And it was so good when we came back.

And just about every man in that room, by the work of the Spirit, the Spirit had put his finger on something.

This is what he's asking me to put down.

This is what he's asking me to leave behind.

But we, after we had a good chunk of time to confess our sin, we didn't do what unfortunately a lot of Presbyterians do.

We didn't just talk about it.

We prayed about it.

We prayed for each other in that room.

And we asked God to forgive us, and we asked God to help us to consecrate ourselves.

We asked God to give us faith, to believe, to forsake, to put down the shovel in those areas.

That was a rich time.

That was a rich time.

Prayer.

What has God been showing you the last three weeks, four weeks?

Where are you looking for living water?

And he's saying, there it is.

Why is it important to do this?

Because if you don't see it, you're not going to passionately pursue the living water.

It's thirsty people who are aware of their thirst who go passionately after Jesus.

It's people who realize where they dig.

It's people that realize how they dig.

If you don't see it, you're just kind of you're not in the game.

If you don't see it, you're not in the game.

But this is what the Holy Spirit wants to do.

He puts his finger on it.

And so what is it?

Is it lust?

It is for a lot of people.

Is it pride?

Is it jealousy?

Are you still struggling?

Because somebody got the promotion that you didn't get?

Are you still struggling because people have stuff that you don't have?

What is it?

The Holy Spirit puts his finger on it.

He says, you bring that to Jesus.

And you let Jesus take that burden.

And you let Jesus give you that joy.

And that peace and that patience and that kindness and that goodness.

Do you need gentleness?

Are you known as a gentle person?

Self-control?

This is the fruit of the Spirit.

And why do we call it the fruit of the Holy Spirit?

Because only the Holy Spirit can produce this fruit.

Our self-effort will never accomplish it.

We can't conjure this up.

No matter how hard we try.

The Spirit gives as we yield.

Are you thirsty?

Has God been showing you where you're digging for water in all the wrong places?

To come back to Jesus.

Look at what Jesus says.

If anyone thirsts, I'm pretty sure that includes you.

You're in anyone, right?

If anyone thirst, let him come to me present tense.

The door is always open.

Jesus is always ready to come.

To drink.

Come and drink.

Well, as Jesus says in the scriptures, Isaiah 55, verse 1, come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters.

Isaiah 55:1

The last chapter of the last book of the Bible, Revelation, come and let the one who is thirsty come.

Let the one who desires take the water of life without price.

It's a gift.

And with a gift, you can only receive it or you can refuse it.

You don't pay for it.

Today, Jesus wants you to receive his living water.

He wants you to open up to the Holy Spirit.

It's a precious, it's a beautiful thing.

Open up by the Spirit.

You know, I've been here 28 years in this church.

That's a long time.

And I thought to myself many times over, there's only one reason, there's only one answer I have why I'm st why I should still be here.

Because I'm still growing.

And I'm still opening up.

I'm still repenting.

More.

If I'm truthful with you.

And I could I could ask Sharon to come up and testify.

Has she seen me grow in God's grace and God's love?

If I can't do that without getting red in the face or embarrassed, maybe it's time to move on.

I can testify to her growth in grace.

I can testify to how God has been growing her.

Is there anybody in your life that can testify to your changing heart?

Is there anybody in your life that can testify there is just so much more love?

More gentleness.

There's just more peace.

It's not that they don't struggle.

It's not that they don't still sin, but there's just, it's different.

They're growing.

I see it.

Come.

Come to Jesus this morning.

Some of you might be thinking, I've never come to Jesus.

Come to Jesus.

Come to Jesus with all of your sin and give it to him.

And ask God the Father to forgive you.

And ask Jesus to come into your life and fill you.

Ask the Holy Spirit.

If you can't believe, if you can't have faith, ask the Holy Spirit to give you that faith.

He will.

How much more will the Father give the Holy Spirit to all who ask?

Jesus said.

If a father knows how to give good gifts to his son or daughter, if fathers like us, you know, who are far from perfect, if we know how to give good gifts to our children, how much more will your father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to all who ask?

Are you asking?

Are you aware of your thirst?

If you are, the Spirit is working.

Praise God.

The invitation Is extended to thirsty people who are aware of their thirst, who are putting down their shovels as the Lord works in our hearts.

The urgency of the invitation, Jesus cries out.

The invitation is specifically to come to Jesus.

Not come to a philosophy, not come to a program, not come to your duty.

Come to Jesus.

Don't put your faith in your faith.

We talk about that a lot at APC.

That happens a lot today.

A lot of times we're putting our faith in our faith, and that's why it doesn't help us.

The Bible never tells us to put our faith in our faith.

I think that is one of the most common mistakes that Christians make.

They think, oh, no, I believe.

I believe.

I just got to believe more.

I just got to believe more.

I just got to believe more.

That's not the way it works.

When I look at Jesus, it's looking at Jesus that our faith grows.

That's what the Spirit does.

Don't put all that pressure on yourself.

Like somehow you're going to work it up.

Jesus said, if you're thirsty, come to me, and I will give you living water.

Not trickles.

I had a conversation with a man after the first service, and it was really neat.

He came up to me and he was very excited.

He said, Tom, I'm just listening, I'm listening, I'm learning, and I've got this idea.

What do you think about this?

And the idea is, he said, Tom, a river.

You can't stop a river.

You either go with it or you kind of get drowned by it.

All you can do is get in the current of the river.

Can you imagine how foolish it would be for somebody to try to stop a river?

You can't do that.

I guess you know we could we can swim over the side.

But if you're on the bank, you're not in the river.

If you're in the river, you're in the current of the river, the Holy Spirit is working.

And he's giving you more fruit of the Spirit.

That's what He does.

Sometimes like a garden hose that gets all kinked up.

It seems like the river flows, stops.

It just gets kinked, right?

You ever done that in your backyard with that hose?

You know, like, where's the power?

Where is it?

Oh.

There's the kink.

You know what the Holy Spirit does?

The Holy Spirit says, there's the kink.

That's what I want you to do.

I want you to address what's going on, what I'm showing you.

I want you to I want you to confess.

I want you to repent of that.

I want you to give that up to Jesus so that the water can flow, and then you just unkink it.

He unkinkes it, right?

That's the way it works.

Ezekiel said, wherever the river flows, everything lives.

It's a beautiful truth.

Let's talk just a little bit more before we come to the Lord's table, just about why this is hard and how God wants us to free us of this.

A man by the name of Martin Smith, in his book, A Season for the Spirit, writes this What chance is there of loving and respecting others if I refuse to meet and listen to the many sides of myself?

How can I be a reconciler if I shut my ears to the unreconciled conflicts within myself?

Now I begin to see that the spiritual life is based on a basic honesty, which enables me to recognize that everything I find difficult to accept, bless, forgive, and appreciate in others is actually present in myself.

Wow.

In reality, we're often so busy that we fail to take the time to look within.

We are more familiar with the lineup of TV shows or the stats of our favorite sports stars or the status of our portfolios than we are with our own hearts.

And this isn't merely a modern psychological critique.

The great 17th century pastor John Flaybel wrote that there are some people who have lived 40 or 50 years in this world and have had scarcely one hour's discourse with their own hearts.

Knowing the territory of our own hearts is crucial for our successful journey.

The Holy Spirit dwells in your heart.

He's no stranger to the diversity and the conflict there.

The Spirit of God dwells with and between and among all the selves of yourself.

I love that phrase.

Right?

All the selves of yourself.

The nooks and crannies that you just don't even see.

Doors that you don't want to open because you don't know where it might lead.

With God so committed to healing our hearts, why do we avoid the hard work of dealing with ourselves?

Gerald May, Christian psychologist, argues that our wilderness survival strategies work for us in the short run.

They keep us together, they allow us to manage our chaotic worlds.

And though they end up hurting us, the thought of letting go of that security in our crutches, you could say, our cisterns, the thought of letting go is too much to bear.

He writes, neuroses are the bonds that though they restrict or enslave us, they also secure our self-images in the world.

As discomforting as they may be, we fear total disintegration if we were to let them go.

Isn't that true?

We'd rather hold on to something that we know is harming us than to let go and trust the Holy Spirit, knowing that that would heal us.

Because it's just it's it's always been there with us.

You know when nobody else understands you and you feel alone or you feel underappreciated, or you just feel scared?

I mean how much of us how many of us do emotional eating?

I I do that.

How many of us just turn on the computer screen looking for something that'll give us a little bit of relief?

The Holy Spirit says, put down that shovel.

It's harming you.

It's not helping you.

Put down that credit card.

What is it?

What is it that he's saying to put down?

To drink.

Jesus.

J.S.

Baxter said, What God chooses, he cleanses.

What God cleanses, he molds.

What God molds, he fills.

And what God fills, he uses.

I don't know about you, but I want God to use me.

I do.

I want God to use me.

And he's got to cleanse me before he's going to use me.

He's got to show me where I'm digging.

Put it down.

The Holy Spirit loves to do this.

Open up to the Holy Spirit.

Today.

Open up to the Holy Spirit.

Like now.

Spiritual transactions.

Did you guys know we didn't give you a scorecard to fill out on your way in?

We gave you a bulletin.

We didn't give you a critique sheet.

We're not asking you to critique the service.

We're asking you to open up.

It always starts with the preacher.

If the preacher is not opening up, if the preacher's not repenting of his sin, if the preacher's not seeing Jesus lifted up and glorified, the service is not going to probably go anywhere.

But it doesn't end with the preacher.

What does Romans chapter 4 say?

Romans 4 · chapter mention

Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, so that in our time of need we might find grace and help.

The Holy Spirit gives us confidence as he pours out the love of the Father into our hearts.

Would you continue the conversation?

I mean, you're hearing my voice, but hopefully you're hearing another voice.

Hopefully you're hearing the Spirit.

Let the conversation with the Spirit continue.

What is it?

Where's he asking you to put down that shovel?

What's he asking you to open up to?

What's he asking you to leave behind so you can move forward?

Have that conversation with him.